PROFILE: DUKE DUMONT

We talk Chicago House foundations, a Sankeys Ibiza summer residency and conquering Japan with Duke Dumont at Hideout Festival

The first things that struck us about Duke Dumont, aka Adam Dyment upon first meet at Hideout Festival, were both his honesty and his integrity. To put it simply, he’s a cool guy who’s down to earth. Having taken three flights from Ibiza to reach Croatia for the occasion, Dumont described the journey in his own words as a ‘nightmare’. But when you’ve got a few thousand eager fans awaiting your set on the main stage one hundred feet away, it’s hard to stay dampened for long.

Having entered the singles chart at no,1 with his underground track ‘Need You (100%) amidst the Electronic Renaissance Dumont, much like Disclosure, is pioneering a revival of UK Garage for the mainstream, unheard of since the ‘90s. Describing UKG as his Baptism, this is a man who knows what he is talking about and having been DJ’ing for seventeen years – it shows. We caught up with the man himself to talk Hideout Festival, Chicago House foundations, his summer residency at Sankeys Ibiza and conquering Japan.

So you’ve just jet over here from Ibiza, how is your residency in Sankeys going so far?

It was the first night last night, it was completely sold out, the vibe of it was great. If it’s the same every week for the rest of the summer, I’m happy.

So it went pretty well then!

I think there’s still a little room for improvement, because I’m a perfectionist. It couldn’t have gone any better. But I’m genuinely looking forward to it this year.

Amazing. So, what kind of music did you grow up on?

I mean, I got my first pair of decks when I was about fourteen or fifteen and the first music I was DJing was garage, you know, around the late ‘90s. From there I got more and more into my US house music, Chicago house. I didn’t really go back into the garage side of things, but that’s where I started DJing. I got into the techy stuff when I first started making music. And club music around 120-130bpm is kind of what I know. So yeah, my baptism was UK garage.

Who from Chicago house would be your key influences?

I mean the first Chicago house record I bought was Roy Davis Jnr – ‘Gabriel’ because a lot of the UK Garage DJs around that time were playing it, it was a real cross-over track into that scene. So, that was the first thing that got me into it and then my favourite guy is probably Green Velvet, you know Cajmere. It just had a bit more vocals than the UK garage stuff, it was a little bit more soulful. And I think it comes out in what I do now.

Some would say you took the scene by storm. You were just the top all of a sudden…

I wouldn’t say it was “all of a sudden”; it took me about eight years to get here, and I’m still not at the top.

Well everyone knows your name…

(Laughs) Some people do!But, I’ve been doing this as a job since I was about 22-23. I was working in offices up until then. So, it hasn’t always been as popular as it has now. But things are good and I just hope to capitalise on the success of everything and just not stop, just keep on going.

How old are you now?

I’m 32. So, I’m starting to do three albums at Universal. I want to stick to that: do three good albums, do a night show, DJ, have success for my record label, maybe cross over and do a radio show one day and I basically just continually have a passion for music. So, all of those jobs become quite easy.

So where else are you going to be this summer, apart from your residency?

Everywhere.

Everywhere? Fair enough.

I don’t think there are festivals I’ve not played.

How do you compare Ibiza scene to Croatia?

To be honest, I haven’t played yet so I can’t answer that question. But the last time I played in Croatia was about six years ago and it was in a castle, so it’s a completely different dynamic to today. Speak to me in two hours… But I definitely think that Croatia is more of an emerging market, it’s not so EDM driven as is Ibiza. But I can’t really pass an educated comment until I’ve played.

Okay, last question, before you show us how it’s done. Is there any venue or festival in the world that you’re desperate to get to?

My favourite two I’ve personally played are Bestival on the Isle of Wight and Coachella in Palm Springs. Anywhere I really want to get to? I’d love to go to Japan. I’ve forgotten the name of that big festival at Mount Fuji or whatever, I really want to play there, but I think when I do a live show next summer all those festivals but for this summer it’s purely a DJ set.